Friday, December 19, 2008

Chelsea is one of the hardest opponents Juventus could meet in the final sixteen. Felipe Scolari’s blues are the runners-up of the Champions League: they lost to Manchester United in the final played on the 21st of May, after penalties when captain John Terry slipped at the crucial moment putting the ball wide and Anelka missed the decisive shot from eleven meters.

Since then Chelsea changed coach with Felipe Scolari having replaced Grant, however the objectives of the team from London remained the same especially since the Blues are considered amongst the absolute favourites to win the title.

They reached the second stage having placed second in Group A after Roma, collecting 11 points thanks to three home victories (4-0 against Bordeaux, 1-0 against Roma and 2-1 against Cluj) and two draws (1-1 in France and 0-0 in Romania). The only defeat conceded was that at the Olimpico in Rome (3-1 for the giallorossi) and cost them the first place in the table.

In the Premier League, Chelsea is currently second behind Liverpool who lead by one point (38 points for the Reds and 37 for the Blues). The team missed points against the big guns of the championship: Scolari’s men only managed to beat Aston Villa from the top five teams, drawing against Manchester United and Losing against Liverpool and Arsenal. All these matches were played at Stamford Bridge, the home of the blues and a stadium with over 42,000 places.

Scolari’s sqaud is one of great quality with 17 out of the total 26 players being internationals and with champions of the calibre Lampard, Drogba, Terry, Anelka, Ballack, Deco, Cech, Carvalho, Joe Cole, Malouda, Ashely Cole and Ivanovic...

The blues’ trophy cupboard is important and displays 3 Premerships, two Cup Winners’ Cup, one UEFA Supercup, three Community Shields, four F.A. Cups and as many League Cups.

Claudio Ranieri spent some good and important years at Chelsea: four seasons between 2000 and 2004 during which he was runner-up in the league and semi-finalist of the Champions League during his last year in London.

Juventus e Chelsea will play the first match at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday 25th February at 19.45 (CET) and the return in Turin on the 10th of March, at the Olimpico in Turin at 20.45 (CET).